Veteran's View - Remember George Eastham

I've made the summer more bearable by avoiding the sports pages of the red-tops.

Well, marginally more bearable - because it's impossible, if you love the club, to wean yourself completely off the constant drip-drip-drip of news.

The addiction to Arsenal!

And of course that's one of the huge differences between way back at the beginning of the sixties when I first started following the club - and now: the plethora of news. Back then I kept an Arsenal scrapbook - I still have them. Match reports stuck in from the papers that I could get at the time - all dated and labelled.

But come the summer - there's virtually nothing. Why? Not because my love for the club died during those months - but because the papers back then - pre-red-top, pre-tabloid - really didn't cover the game in any great detail once the Cup final was over and only returned the week of the opening game of the season.

I only mention this because, yes, of course, the game has changed in the last fifty years - but so has the coverage. Not just back page, but front page. Constant choice of live games, 24 hour sports news coverage, dedicated TV channels, specials, blogs (!), supplements, online - and so on. Is it any wonder that the players then changed as their enhanced public profiles fuelled egos fuelled salary demands.....!?

Actually this summer has been marginally better than the last few miserable summers of stories about the comings and goings of Arsenal players - which really started at the beginning of the decade when Vieira was in his pomp and everyday there seemed to be stories about transfers, his loyalty to the club, his wage demands, his respect for Wenger, his love of Italy, the importance of the captaincy and so on. In other words, arrant nonsense to fill the acreage of space that the media now gives football...

But it's better (marginally) this summer (well at least Flamini had the good grace to bugger off as the kit from his last game was still in the spin dryer) because the rubbish being written about Hleb and Ade is still rubbish - but there's better rubbish being written about Him from Manchester, the Slave, and Mourinho's badge-kissing love child wavering at the Bridge. And don't we all love schadenfreude!

But when I say rubbish - I mean rubbish! Rubbish because editors have space to fill and will fill it with gossip, half-truths, lies, fiction, scandal. But rubbish because footballers (and their agents) become willing partners in this media dance. Did Hleb say all that rubbish about Arsene and Cesc that he then so quickly denied and retracted? Yes! He probably did on some Belarus website. Did he then - and, oh, the delicious echo of Reyes (!) - spout some inanities about his sufferings at living in London! Yes - I am sure he did. Vacuous rubbish to fill back pages to hasten his exit... negotiations being conducted in public. Do I care if he goes? No!

At least Ade had some engagement of the brain - or PR company - to stage manage a quick philanthropic trip to Togo to display his love of his homeland as he courted any club in Spain or Italy and at least make his exit look like it was coming from a man that had a heart, that cared….

But cared about what? Cared about the club? The fans? And after all that the club and Arsene have given him to read his rubbish about wanting to be loved more – for which read paid more – I’d be quite happy never to see a player kiss a badge again. I don’t care if he goes too…. but I can only laugh louder at the more blatant infidelities from the Slave and the already grossly overpaid Bridge-Waverer.

Some of the earliest cuttings in my scrapbook are about George Eastham. One of the most elegant players ever to play for the club and to whom most modern players owe a huge debt of gratitude. Here was a man who wanted out of Newcastle so much that he put his career on hold and temporarily became a cork salesman before being allowed to join Arsenal and in the process helped to break the ‘retain and transfer’ system - and in part gave today’s players so much freedom.

Slavery? Let’s all laugh. At least this summer there are more laughs to be had at other clubs and the hollow whoring of other players. If Flamini, Hleb, Ade want to go, I don’t care. If they can’t appreciate that the Arsenal Academy and the alchemy that Arsene has applied to them, spare me at least their pathetic outbursts in the media.

I’m an Arsenal Addict and I sleep easy at night.

Jegbie's Journal - In Arsene we trust

Less than a week away from Arsenal’s annual pre-season friendly at Underhill and I am chomping at the bit for the season to start.

Walcott’s five-man beating run at Anfield in our loss to the Scousers; Fabregas’s fantastic Euro 2008 exploits; Carlos Vela (who made Sergio Ramos look like a mug when Osasuna played Real last season); a soon-to-be-fit Eduardo and a fit Van Persie are all food for thought.

I think most Gooners will accept that Hleb and Adebayor may have played their last games for the club and if they want to go then let them go.

The arrival of Nasri, who I believe will do for us what Ronaldo does for Man Utd in giving us moments of true individual genius, and Ramsey, may have been our only forays into the transfer market this summer - yet I think there are more to come.

I am hoping we sign Falcao, completely unheard of and would be a typical Wenger signing and I would like to see Arsharvin come although he is at the older end of Wenger’s range for players.

Bischoff I know little of but who had heard of the Flamster before he came to us?

More than anything I think us Gooners need a big signing to get us excited and to send a message out to other clubs that says we mean business.

Watching some of last seasons matches, how many times when Ade got the ball did we think he was gonna miss? Too many as far as I am concerned.

He missed a sitter at Anfield that would have won us the Champions League tie and in my opinion is way too erratic in front of goal to be making the demands he is making.

Six of his Premiership goals last season came against Derby, who were nicknames “the worst team in Premier League history”.

We have three of the best players in our starting 11 according to the 2008 Premier League team of the season results and the others will improve as well.

Who had heard of Sagna or Clichy before the professor bought them in? Who had heard of Denilson, Diaby and Traore? Remember the surprise when Ade and Diaby came in?

Arsene loves to surprise us, he needs to be trusted to make these young players (Nasri, Walcott, Vela) better as he did with Viera, Henry and Kolo.

If Eduardo or RVP had been playing in our title run in we would have won the title last season – how many people thought we’d do as well when they heard that Henry was leaving?

Arsenal is more than one player and no-one knows that better than Wenger. He is building a new team at the moment and I think he is close to getting it right.

Whatever happens, get behind our team and support them and remember how great it is to be a Gooner. We are admired all over the world and I for one love watching us play more than any other team.

I am not worried because I trust Arsene – he is punching above his weight assembling a team that no other manager could do on his budget. He is doing it because we are not a monopoly money club like Chelsea or a glory buying side like Man Utd.

Look how many British and foreign players are playing in clubs in the Premiership who started at Arsenal. We are attacked for not producing enough players…. Who have Man U produced in recent years? All their young players have been bought for huge sums of money (Anderson, Nani, Carrick, Hargreaves, Tevez) and were already established players when they came in to the team.

Reasons to be cheerful .. Ronaldo the slave (what a joke!) will hopefully bugger off to Real Madrid. Adebayor will be replaced. Ramsey will be our Stevie G. Nasir will light up Emirates with mesmerizing runs and outrageous strikes.

Oh yeah and be thankful you weren’t born a Spurs fan. We may have had a few lean seasons but they are the perennial underachievers and always worth laughing at.

Here’s looking forward to our next signing whoever it may be.

Is Arshavin a suitable replacement for Adebayor?

It's always hard to know what to believe in the newspapers. The media have to protect their contacts, and when agents speak, it's usually with an agenda of some sort in mind, such as getting their client a better deal with their current employer or prompting bids from more attractive clubs.

That said, I wonder if Arsene Wenger really IS trying to sign Andrei Arshavin. A player unknown to most of Europe a year ago, thanks to his UEFA Cup performances and a couple of games at Euro2008, he is one of the most sought after players in the current transfer market.

Wenger has already questioned the Russian's ability to play in the rigours of the Premiership and has repeatedly stated in the past that he is not keen on signing players on the basis of a single tournament. But perhaps he sees something in Arshavin, a touch of the Dennis Bergkamps, that has inspired him to move.

Arshavin did claim t want to move to Barcelona and no one else, but perhaps their interest has not materialised. Whether his agent is telling the truth when he says: "Andrei is desperate to join Arsenal. His style of play would suit them perfectly," remains to be seen.

It seems that Adebayor has burnt his bridges with the club, if Vincenzo Morabito is to be believed. If the Togolese's asking price really has dropped to almost half the original £32m, it seems Wenger has had enough of his antics. Remember, this is the player who has fallen out with managers in the past, including his international coach.

Morabito said: “We are going towards more reasonable figures that are within Milan’s reach, as they had placed a ceiling on the bid they were willing to make. It is much, much lower than the £32m initially requested. In fact, it’s a little bit more than half that figure.

"It is still below the asking price of Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba, but they are a little older. We are working to facilitate the negotiations. The signs are very positive.”

My feeling is that Arshavin is too much of a deep-lying forward in the mould of Robin Van Persie, and even Eduardo to a certain extent. Eto'o, Huntelaar, and even, God forbid, Santa Cruz, offer far more of a line-leading cutting edge that will give us some variety to our attacks next season. Before Adebayor arrived, we had a tendency to be all too predictable, after all.

The squad is coming together now, and I expect half a dozen comings and goings before the end of August. Wouldn't it be nice to get it all sorted befre West Brom on August 16?